Thursday evening (USC football coach Lane) Kiffin received a verbal commitment from 13-year old wunderkind quarterback David Sills of Bear, Del.

Okay, take a breath. What the hell is going on?

The ‘commitment’, which means absolutely nothing and can be rescinded by either party at any time, is the handiwork of Sills personal quarterback coach Steve Clarkson. Clarkson, who calls himself a “dreammaker“, is a relentless self-promotion machine who often appears on SoCal and national media outlets touting his private, personal quarterback coaching skills.

Clarkson runs a private quarterback academy of sorts, tutoring kids for parents of any age who pay top dollar for his services. In 2002, USA TODAY reported that Clarkson had 60 students at the time and made $100 per hour in his venture.

There’s a distinct possibility, not lost on Kiffin and Clarkson, that Sills’ so-called “commitment” to USC will have a much larger impact on building the business of Clarkson’s quarterback academy than the fortunes of the Trojans on the field.

Steve Clarkson is known as a quarterback king maker. He started the hype machine that led to Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen being called “one of the greatest high school recruits ever”. He helped launch the careers of Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart, J.P. Losman (maybe not such an endorsement) and Gino Toretta. Now he’s in the early stages of launching a primo career for David Sills, a Delaware native who just so happens to be 12 years old.

(Meet the future of the quarterback position, aged 12.)

That’s right folks, a 12 year-old is running through passing drills and prepping himself for college recruitment. He reportedly received a questionnaire from UCLA a year ago, and he’s not alone. According to this piece from CBSSPORTSLINE, Clarkson is tutoring no fewer than four middle school quarterbacks across the country, teaching them advanced formations and schematics as if they were seniors in high school.